But he made an even worse joke — intentionally insulting every American taxpayer’s intelligence — when he seriously asserted on the late-night talk show that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was doing an “outstanding job.”

In a taped appearance on “The Tonight Show”, he told host Jay Leno that Geithner is a smart guy who’s been handed an incredibly full plate. But he’s handling it all with grace and good humor. Listing the recession, the banking crisis and the need to coordinate with other countries, Obama acknowledged Geithner’s “on the hot seat”. But he says too many in Washington are trying to figure out who to blame for things — when they should be focused on fixing them.

Obama claimed to take personal responsibility…but not until he whinged a bit about inheriting his economic headaches from the Bush administration.

The “outstanding” Geithner followed his boss’s footsteps by making an empty show of taking “full responsibility” tonight for the bonus botch…while bearing no consequences for his latest misjudgment:

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner confirmed Thursday that the department did talk to Sen. Chris Dodd about a clause he put forth in the stimulus legislation that would have strictly limited executive bonuses. Timothy Geithner says the Treasury was worried about legal challenges to limiting contractual bonuses.

A loophole in the bill allowed bailed-out insurance giant American International Group to keep its bonuses.

The Treasury Department was concerned that legislation that would restrict contractual bonuses would not hold up to legal challenges, Geithner said in an interview with CNN’s Ali Velshi.

“We expressed concern about this specific version. We wanted to make sure it was strong enough to survive legal challenge,” Geithner said.

…Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, also acknowledged Wednesday his role in controversy, after previously denying having anything to do with crafting language that permitted the bonuses. Watch Geithner describe when he knew about bonuses »

Geithner said he learned the full scale of the bonus problems on March 10.

“It’s my responsibility; I was in a position where I didn’t know about those sooner. I take full responsibility for that,” he said.